WARREN ELLIS is a graphic novelist and author of the NYT best-selling novel GUN MACHINE. His graphic novel GLOBAL FREQUENCY is being developed for television by Jerry Bruckheimer and FOX. He is the writer of the graphic novel RED, adapted into the film starring Bruce Willis and Helen Mirren. His next book is NORMAL from FSG.

It’s been 15 years since the USSR collapsed, I wonder why they waited so long before kicking off. Maybe because they had sensible rulers, that knew how to keep the situation quiet, while the current ones are a bunch of naive muppets?

Anyway, the linked blog makes for really poor “reporting”, it’s just a biased rant with lots of pictures (“russian scum are raiding for the hell of it”, very rational explanation, oh yes). Sorry Warren, no need to link this stuff.

the looting youth is just a small part of the russian population in Estonia that make the most russian-speaking population look bad. And – correct, they are not looting for the hell of it – they are targeting mostly luxury goods. I admit that I might get a bit carried away, but Estonians are being attacked here.

Hm, your acquintance very conveniently forgets to mention how the monument is placed over a mass grave of soldiers who have died in WW2. As well as the fact that whilst the people protesting against desecration of the grave were mostly Russian, the Estonians promptly joined in when the looting started. Oh, and of course that the looting was a direct consequence of the police trying to disperse the protesters at the monument by using violence. And how the decision to move the monument and exhume the grave was condemned not only by the great empire of Estonia-hating evil that is Russia, but also by their Baltic neighbours Lithuania and Latvia, as well as the president of the European Council. Oh, and don’t even get me started on the f***ing monument to the f***ing Estonian Waffen SS soldiers.

It seems that too many people in Estonia think that a democracy is just a dictatorship of 51%…

Moneo, you seem to conveniently forget that Russia itself recently moved a Red Army memorial and graves to make way for a highway project. The fact is, Estonia suffered for 50 some years under Russian colonization. I would think they have the right to put the statue someplace less noticeable. Somehow, I can’t seem to make the connection between moving a statue and smashing windows for a pair of new trainers and a hoodie.

Greg, the heart of the problem is that instead of trying to integrate the 30% Russian minority living in Estonia, the government basically goes out of its way to start an ethnic war. Hence anti-russian propaganda, hence labeling the incorporation of Baltic states into the Soviet Union as ‘occupation’, hence constant diplomatic affronts against Russia, and so on. What is happening now is a direct consequence of this policy.

Evestus, in a recent poll only 37% of Estonian residents were in favor of moving the monument, with 49% against it and the rest undecided/not willing to respond. It’s one of them… whatchamacallit? controversial issues. The whole thing (including, but not limited to, your reaction) would have been funny… if it weren’t so damn scary, of course.